Blind man receives $45K settlement from city of Milwaukee after missing sidewalk causes fall
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- After fighting with the city of Milwaukee for nearly four years, a blind man has received a $45,000 payment from the city after he fell where a chunk of sidewalk was missing, leaving him with nerve damage in his neck.
On July 11, 2019, Arthur Ward was walking along W. Meinecke Ave. between N. 37th and 38th streets. He said he frequently walked by Butterfly Park because he helped out with summer programming there for kids and teens.
Ward pointed out how his white cane typically helps him stay on the sidewalk and alerts him to where the curb is. On that day, however, Ward was not expecting for there to be a large hole in the middle of the block.
Utility work left a piece of the sidewalk missing, and a photo taken at the scene one day later showed no warning signs or barriers on either side of the hole.
"I'm 100% blind, man," Ward said in an interview Monday. "And I think when they're out here doing this, they've got to think about - you never know who's in the community. Everybody else running around, they could see that hole. I couldn't see that hole."
Ward said by the time he realized the sidewalk was missing, it was too late.
"When I went in the hole, I buckled down into the hole, and I didn't really think I was hurt then," he said. "I woke up the next day, neck hurting so bad, I was screaming out loud."
Ward said he was eventually diagnosed with nerve damage. He said "big-name" lawyers in the city declined to take the case, noting they typically didn't litigate against the city.
Mark Thomsen, a personal injury lawyer who agreed to represent Ward, said it's typically not very lucrative for attorneys to pursue injury lawsuits against cities and villages because Wisconsin law limits the amount someone can recover in such cases to $50,000.
"Wisconsin needs to up the cap," Thomsen said. "That cap has been $50,000 forever, and it just is not enough to cover people these days."
According to a 1986 paper submitted in the Wisconsin Law Journal, the state Legislature in 1963 initially established a recovery limit of $25,000 in injury cases against municipalities. The Legislature doubled that amount to $50,000 in 1981, and it's been that way ever since.
Thomsen, who is also a Democratic appointee to the six-member Wisconsin Elections Commission, said he took the case because he found the incident to be particularly egregious.
"The fact that they had a hole, unmarked, in the middle of a park just crossed the line," he said in an interview Monday.
Both Ward and Thomsen said they were further frustrated by the city's initial response. A photo taken one week after Ward's fall showed the city had put a single cone in the middle of the hole.
One week after Arthur Ward fell in an unmarked hole, a single cone was placed in the area where sidewalk was missing.
"You have to do more than put a cone in a hole if you want people not to fall in it," Thomsen said.
Thomsen filed a Notice of Injury and Claim with the city of Milwaukee in November 2019. It went nowhere, and Ward ended up suing the city in the summer of 2022.
This September, the city attorney's office agreed to a $45,000 settlement with Ward, and the Common Council approved it. Thomsen said, in a case where he believed the city was clearly negligent, it shouldn't have taken so long for Ward to get compensation.
Thomsen said it was fairly typical for cities to ignore such claims. He said he suspects it's because people are discouraged from taking the next step of filing a lawsuit, knowing the most they can win is $50,000, and that's after paying legal fees.
"They need to revisit their whole process," Thomsen said. "Arthur Ward should've been paid a long, long time ago."
CBS 58 asked the Department of Public Works if Ward's injury led to policy changes for securing worksites, or if there was any additional emphasis placed following Ward's fall. DPW spokesperson Tiffany Shepherd said the department declined to discuss Ward's specific incident.
"For DPW, maintaining safety at all worksites is of the utmost importance," Shepherd said in an email.
Ward, who received his $45,000 payment last week, said he felt justified by the settlement and added he hoped it would prompt city workers to be more diligent about how they were leaving worksites.
"City of Milwaukee: Begin to do your jobs. Cover things up, cover these holes up," Ward said. "Make sure you let people know there's danger there."